Li Zhao Xu's throat felt a bit dry as she stood there. Her breaths felt quick and ragged, but was it her own breathing or the breaths trapped in the memories forced into her mind? She couldn't tell, right now she was so drained that the screams coming from the poison inside her drowned out almost everything else.
But to her relief, those discordant screams, the wrathful howls of the long-deceased, started to quickly fade after she declared her surrender. The hazy outlines that had started to fill the city also started to fade, the vestiges, the anger and hatred contained in them, all of it had been pulled out and turned into poison, all that remained for them now was to truly fade from existence. She could at least let out a breath now, pushing aside the confusion caused by the invading memories as she slumped down.
"So. You don't seem to be planning on killing me, you wouldn't have redirected the attack otherwise. So what do you want instead? But let me tell you right out, robbing me is more dangerous than fighting me. The only good things I have on me are tied directly to Father, he'll notice the moment I cut my connection with them. And he's overprotective as all hell so things won't end well."
She waved her hand somewhat casually as she spoke, bringing along those life-saving treasures was the only way she could convince her father to actually let her go. If her guess was correct then he would break his way in no matter where she was if even a single one of those items was touched, it wasn't strange for him to act in such an unreasonable manner.
Liang Chen stood there as the victor, but the charred hole that tore clean through his right waist and his ruined clothes could easily make people believe otherwise. Yumao rose up from the shadows, growing to a size where he could coil up and still support Liang Chen's wounded side, Sheng Lian taking care to cover his other side. Liang Chen allowed himself to lean on Yumao's head, a steady flow of death-rich energy flowing into him to help him recuperate.
"Are you related to the Heaven Splitting King?"
Liang Chen obviously had no interest in robbing Zhao Xu, he certainly hadn't kept her alive just so that he could extort her. She hadn't proved herself worthy of death, that was all there was to it, that was all the reason he needed to spare her. But of course, since he had the chance, he wouldn't forget to at least ask a few questions.
The first question he chose wasn't baseless, he had met very few people who could interact with time despite not having the law of time. To be exact, he had met two such people, the Heaven Splitting King that he had seen recently and now this girl. And if she was truly related to him, then things may become a bit awkward, he had just been saved by the king after all. Luckily, it seemed like it really was nothing more than a coincidence.
"Heaven Splitting... ah, Uncle Long. No, I'm not related to him, but Father visits him from time to time. The two have somewhat similar feelings towards battle so Father likes to chat and spar with him."
Zhao Xu looked a bit uncertain at first but then caught herself, as if she wasn't used to the name, or rather, title, that Liang Chen used. Of course, the situation didn't actually change much despite his original guess being wrong. Someone who could meet and spar with the Heaven Splitting King, wouldn't that be an existence on a similar level?
"Your father, who is he?"
"Hmm, you probably don't know his name since he's so stingy with it, but how about Divine Emperor? I think that was the title he was given? Something in that vein at least."
The answer he received to his question was just about what he expected, it really took another exalted Universal Heart to spar with another. The person in question also wasn't someone Liang Chen was entirely unfamiliar with, he had at least heard the title back when his bloodline was first unsealed. The Divine Emperor, ruler of 9 major universes.
But he had at least seen or talked with the other rulers he had learned about since then, with who was likely the Dark Dawn Monarch showing himself recently. But this Divine Emperor was someone he had never had any sort of contact with so he drew a blank when it came to that particular ruler's personality. But as long as he didn't descend then things should be fine, and Liang Chen had no plans of further harming Li Zhao Xu so there should be no reason for him to descend.
"Alright, next question then. Do you know anything about Lao Ye or the Nine Wraths sect? Well, anything that isn't already common knowledge at least."
Lao Ye, the ruler of the Nine Wraths sect, the man closest to Purgatory. In the end, Liang Chen would have to face him, he was the heart of his decayed land and the fire that fueled this cauldron. But information about him was surprisingly sparse, even the sect leaders he had killed so far had preciously little information on him. But sadly enough, it seemed like he was bound to continue drawing a blank on this particular subject.
"You've got poor luck, I've got nothing. He's the one person in here Father forbade me from fighting, said that he may as well just follow me in if I was going to make him drop in to save me anyway. Well, I said I had nothing but that information can be considered something, I retract my starting statement."
Zhao Xu tried to maintain a casual expression, but Liang Chen could sense the traces of bitterness lurking beneath. But that was only to be expected, no child wanted to have their parent put them down like that, even if it was probably the truth.
Liang Chen's expression also sank slightly when Zhao Xu shared what her father had told her. He had obviously expected Lao Ye to be an extremely dangerous opponent, but it seemed like things were worse than he expected. Just fighting Zhao Xu was enough to almost push Liang Chen completely to the brink, if Lao Ye was that much stronger than her then there was a good chance that the current Liang Chen wasn't strong enough to deal with him.
"...Earlier, you muttered about an embryonic prime law, what did you mean by that?"
Honestly, the only option Liang Chen had right now was to set aside the matter about Lao Ye, he would just have to plan some more preparations for that day. So he instead chose to simply move onto the other topic that had caught his interest, the slight mutter Zhao Xu had given when he dredged up the hate-filled vestiges and turned them into poison.
"Prime Law...right, you probably wouldn't know about that, you don't seem like someone with that great a backing after all. But hmmm... how to explain it?"
Zhao Xu tilted her head slightly as she sat there, rolling the thought around in her head. She was someone from a truly great backing so she could easily tell when someone came from a similar backing. And the man that had brutally beaten her down clearly lacked that backing, which honestly made her loss a bit more shameful. But he seemed to know a bit about The Heaven Splitting King at least so she could seek a sliver of solace in that fact.
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"Ah, right! Tell me, do you know how a Law actually works? Like, take the law of water, do you know what other laws it encompasses?"
Now it was Liang Chen's turn to tilt his head slightly, mulling over the question. Now that he actually gave it some thought he had to admit that he didn't actually know how a law actually worked. But he did know a bit about the law of water thanks to his studies so he wasn't as unfamiliar with the other laws you could extract from it.
"Can't say I know how they work, no. But the law of water, huh... Let's see, off the top of my head I can name Reflection, Crushing, Life, Heat, Slicing, and Separation."
Now that he actually bothered to think about it he had to admit that it was a bit strange, why could you use the law of water to get the law of life, or slicing for that matter? His question was reflected in his pupils, Zhao Xu latching onto it.
"Strange, isn't it? Separation, Heat, they don't seem to have a damn thing to do with water yet you can extract them from the law of water. Why?"
She asked him fully aware of the fact that he didn't know the answer, providing it the instant he shook his head.
"Belief and Faith, that's why. People believe 'oh, water can be both warm and cold so it must be tied to heat' or 'oh, water in great quantities can separate people, buildings, even entire continents' or 'oh, water moving at high speeds can cut through things'. It's all just tiny thoughts, but eventually, they become established facts to people, and in those facts, they can place their faith. 'Yes, this is how water works, this is how it will always work.' That's how the laws work, the belief and faith of the masses. That's why something like poison can be so acidic, because of the belief that it ruins bodies. And what better way to ruin a body than to melt it?"
The corners of Zhao Xu's lips curved slightly as she spoke. She had been beaten quite badly, to the point where the opponent even had to show mercy. But at the very least she had this one point to reclaim a bit of pride, knowledge that came from being born to a great backing.
"So, now we know how the laws work, what makes them tick. So let's talk Prime Laws. Let's take Uncle Mu's Prime Law of Redemption as an example. The law of light he's corporated into it has the ability to pierce directly into your soul and dredge out all your guilt, it'll make you weep from all the wrongdoings you've ever committed, or rather, the wrongdoings you feel you've committed. His law of darkness however is able to pierce your soul and dredge up all the pain you've ever caused others, every wound your two hands have ever inflicted in others becomes reflected in your soul. Now that doesn't sound like something light and darkness should be able to do, right? So what do you think a Prime law is?"
Liang Chen didn't immediately respond, continuing to lean against Yumao as he delved into his thoughts. If he really did have an embryonic prime law then this would be important to him later, it would at least give him a clearer picture of what he was dealing with.
"...I'd say it's a law that's taken beyond the normal level, a law that incorporates something it shouldn't normally be able to contain."
The information he had right now was vague, Zhao Xu had probably done it on purpose since she wanted him to guess somewhat blindly. But at the very least she didn't seem like she was planning on forcing him to guess until he somehow struck gold.
"Somewhat close, you at least touched step one. No, what you mentioned is an embryonic Prime Law, like your display of poison. Emotions are not tied to poison, it may be a saying, but it doesn't have nearly enough belief or faith to become an established part of the law. And dredging up vestiges based on 'hatred outlives the hateful' and then turning that into poison? Yeah, no, that's got nothing to do with poison, it's an act outside of the established order, the guidelines of the law. That's an embryonic Prime Law, a brute force method to go against the normal order. But... But if there ever comes a day where you and your belief alone become strong enough to forever alter the law of poison, to turn that act from being something that goes against the order into something that IS the order, then that will be the day a new Prime Law is born."
That was what a Prime Law was, a lone man's stubborn belief that grew so strong that the multiverse was forced to bend and acknowledge it. A singular belief that crushed the faith of the many, the evolution of a law or the birth of a new one entirely, that was a Prime Law. A merged law, a Unique Law, a lone law, it didn't matter what type it was, all of them could become a Prime Law if your belief was strong enough.
It sounded like an outlandish concept, forever altering a law and how it worked. But strangely enough, Liang Chen didn't doubt what Zhao Xu said, he was after all aware of the fact that he was stretching the definition of poison with his earlier acts. At the same time, he also felt that things probably weren't all that simple, at least not for others. After all, if what she said was correct then there was already a Prime Law altering the laws of light and darkness, but he had never heard of anyone using an ability similar to what this Uncle Mu used. So actually dredging out these new abilities was probably not as easy as dredging up the other more established functions contained within each law.
"But...Let me give you a word of warning, or advice if you will. Prime Laws come with... let's call it a price. You can consider it additional abilities, but I feel like calling it a price is better."
Zhao Xu cut into Liang Chen's thoughts, aiming to snuff them out before they could go anywhere worthwhile. Liang Chen listened calmly, it honestly wasn't surprising that something that forced the multiverse to change came with a price.
"Honestly, there's no telling what abilities you can get, they're generally tied to the Prime Law you create. You are forcing the universe to alter how one of its laws works after all, it's only fitting that you receive some closer ties to that particular portion of the law after that. Taking Uncle Mu as an example again, his Prime Law of Redemption makes it so that he can see everything touched by either light or darkness within a few hundreds of thousands of kilometres around him, the man's like a walking spy network. But should there be living beings within that range then he will be forced to witness their wrongdoings and the injuries they've inflicted, the same things he'd show them if he used his laws. And it's not something he can turn off, it just happens automatically, he's just had to learn to live with it. So if you take your poison to the Prime Law level, then you may have to get used to experiencing the anger and hatred of all the vestiges you come across, all that wrath will get concentrated into a nice little ball of memories for you."
Zhao Xu spoke somewhat ominously, clearly trying to warn Liang Chen of what he might have to endure. But quite frankly, that price was far from enough to deter him. He was basically doing that already here in Purgatory's Cradle, his poison spread throughout every city he entered, unravelling the souls of the inhabitants and laying bare their memories for him. Granted, the scale would probably be larger once he actually reached that point, but he was confident he would be able to handle it at that point.
"Hmm, got it, thanks for the information and the warning. I can't say that I have any more questions so you're honestly free to go do whatever you want now. Sheng Liang, Yumao, could I ask you to handle the citizens here? I feel like I'm going to need a bit of time to recuperate."
Liang Chen nodded his head and conveyed his thanks, his gaze sliding away from Li Zhao Xu once he got an answer to the questions he had at the moment. He had no reason, or intention, to keep her any longer, so he moved on to the second order of business here, eradication. And once that was done he could start making the preparations for handling Lao Ye, the inklings of a plan forming in the recesses of his mind.